Hurricane Sandy

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For fear of making this thing political, this doesn't have anything to do with global warming. The area has had more powerful storms in the past. Just now we have more people with more money, i.e. more people with more stuff in the path of the storm.

Two years in a row, massive hurricanes pound the Northeast, an area that rarely gets hurricanes, let alone at full force. Taken by itself, sure, it seems like a coincidence. However, it's just one example of the wacky weather we've been getting the last few years. It very well could be evidence of global warming.

And I don't want to start an argument either -- which is why I'm dropping it after this -- but global warming is only political to those who want it to be political. And that applies to both sides of the aisle.

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Two years in a row, massive hurricanes pound the Northeast, an area that rarely gets hurricanes, let alone at full force. Taken by itself, sure, it seems like a coincidence. However, it's just one example of the wacky weather we've been getting the last few years. It very well could be evidence of global warming.

While I believe in global warming/climate change, 2 instances isn't evidence. It's variance - it's just that global warming makes it somewhat more likely that tropical storms can stay strong later into the season and farther north. But lots of storms have come close-ish to this area but been either blown out to sea or less intense than expected.

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I can't imagine how long it's going to take to rebuild the Jersey Shore. Who is even going to want to rebuild their home along the shore after an event like this? I'm afraid this wasn't a fluke. More natural disasters are occuring due to global warming. The Jersey Shore will never be the same.

Global warming had nothing to do with this circumstance, its wasnt that or HAARP or any of that nonsense...it was only a category one storm folks. It was so devastating due to our development on the barrier islands and it was the perfect weather setup for this storm. The Jet Stream was in a reversed trough over the country and it actually got underneath Sandy and helped drive it in towards the coast and ultimately turned it inland at a westerly motion which was never seen before in the Northeast. The reason why this storm was so devastating was the track of the storm, it came from the east which gave us a direct angle from the surge which we rarely see and this had nothing to do with global warming. This was only a category one storm with winds packing 80mph. We always see cat 1 storms in the Atlantic even late in the season. Yes maybe global warming is increasing the frequency of storms in the Atlantic but this was the perfect setup which we will never see again. I have been studying meteorology for the past six years and I have never seen anything like this setup before. Everything had to be in place for this hurricane to get swept towards the west while transitioning from a warm water breathing hurricane into a cold air and cold water breathing nor'easter. It was amazing to watch and study but the devastation is just terrible. Weather is one of my passions in life ever since I was a kid but it hurts me every time when something like this happens.

Another aspect of this storm was this was the first real storm the state has faced since we developed on these barrier islands. The Ash Wednesday Storm of 1962 brought a massive surge onto these barrier islands but the damage was minimal compared to Sandy due to the lack of development. The islands did their job and protected the mainland but the devastation was sadly expected. It was only a matter of time but hopefully we will rebuild and come back stronger than ever. I recently did a report on the seawall from Sea Girt up to Sandy Hook. My report included a plan to extend the wall all the way down to Cape May. Obviously money and environment problems (longshore drift issues) would up-rise with this idea but it proved valuable for areas from Sea Girt to Sandy Hook. Although they were hit hard and the wall had many breaches it did hold back a lot of water and they did not get devastated like Seaside, Lavalette, or Belmar.

Edited November 2, 2012 by Zubie#8

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got power back here in bloomingdale, hope all you guys are safe. im more of a lurker on this site but love the valuble info you guys give me on the team. The sucky part of getting power back is a few of my neighbors dont have power still. Makes me feel guilty but then i heard a story from a co worker how their son has the same thing , but is the one without power and his neighbor is putting up christams lights while he sits in his cold dar k house. dont do that, that will get you killed. anyhow,i seethe posts on global warming, perhaps that is it, perhaps we just built on stuff that wasnt built, i was going to bed beofre the storm and was checking the weather and they were playing a show on this thing called H.A.A.R.P. Research it, it seems totally ridicoulous like area 51 or bigfoot but as i kept watching, they gave evidence that this HAARP project in Alaska is legite. Basically according to their patient application, they are trying to control the weather. Clintons secertary of defense ( i believe that was the title) admitted it on record. Other countries, i think it was russia, have this techonology too, it involves frying the atmosphere and casueing this. I know it sounds crazy but since we got no hockey to watch, its an interesting thing to research. My biggest fear was always that the dumbasses would control the weather, they always want it to be sunny and nice out, my garden would die with no rain. imagine if this HAARP crap is real, countries using weather to attack each other. Hopefully its not the case, that would be scary. think about it, you d o that and then if anyone catches on to it, people go "youre crazy to think that". ANyhow, not sure i buy it but that clinton guy admitting they are doing it makes you think. Fun off hockey season research. Research before you just call me crazy.

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-- Our best forecast as of now is that we will have virtually all of our impacted customers restored to service within the next seven to 10 days. The majority of customers will be restored before then. There may still be isolated pockets of customers who have individual flooding or downed line issues that may take slightly longer.

This wouldn't be awful in a vacuum except that there's whispers of a snowy Nor'easter scheduled to come through sometime around Tue/Wed. Sounds like if we have no power (and therefore no heat) we're going to have to make the decision to kill the water in the house so we don't have any frozen bursting pipes. Hopefully it doesn't come to that and stays above-board.

And in other news, the gas shortage is expanding. Long Island, supposedly, is now seeing longer lines and even more inflated prices. Anyone have any tips as to finding out which gas stations are open other than Twitter?

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I'm pretty sure we haven't had more powerful storms in the past. The previous record for a surge brought by a storm was 11 feet set in 1821. This one was over 13.

So by that wouldn't you say this storm was bigger than any storm ever recorded in the area...

Storm surge has a lot to do with the angle the storm came in by, I believe, so I don't know if that would be the best measure of strength. A much more violent storm coming from inland wouldn't cause anywhere near the amount of surge and yet be more powerful.

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Our home in Sayreville is still standing...but it's not liveable in right now. We live a block from the Raritan River and the storm surge turned our street into a river. I've never seen anything like it. I went outside and there was 5 feet of water on our street. We panicked and took 30 minutes to get our cars to safety and when we got home, the water was coming in everywhere. Then the toilet backflowed and the apartment got covered in over a foot of blackwater/raw sewage. We're still waiting for the decontamination people to have time to show up. We haven't been able to go back since Monday night. We're staying with a neighbor, but we haven't had power since Monday and I just heard we're looking at another 4-5 days in the dark.

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Got power back this afternoon. It had been out since Monday. Lost most of the trees in the complex. Outside of the complex is a mess. First thing I did was turn the heat on. I cannot believe they are predicting a nor'easter for next week.

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I'm in Boston right now, but my neighbor texted me to let me know our power is back. Up here, flashlights, bottled water and D batteries are available in abundance, so I was gonna pick up a bunch of supplies to bring home and send out to those who need them. I don't know how to go about distributing that type of stuff, so if anyone knows a way, please let me know what to do.

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Maddog - There's a bunch of shelters and organizations (particularly in Monmouth and Ocean) collecting over the next few days. I'll see if I can find the list again in a few, but they shouldn't be hard to find.

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We live in Brick, on the Manasquan River, about five miles upriver from the inlet. The storm surge must have been five or six feet to push debris and a lot of crap way up over the bank and the another fifty feet ip the slope pf the back yard

Floating docks are all over the place.

Wind knocked down six big pine trees.

Still no power. I've seen crews from SPE Utility Contractors from Detroit in the area as well ss a pickup from TECO- Tampa Electric Co.

Hope every one is safe

Edited November 2, 2012 by point

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Maddog - There's a bunch of shelters and organizations (particularly in Monmouth and Ocean) collecting over the next few days. I'll see if I can find the list again in a few, but they shouldn't be hard to find.

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I'm in Matawan and we barely took any damage whatsoever but until today were 100% without power in the town. I'm glad to have been one of the lucky ones as far as damage, but the fact that Atlantic Highlands and Belmar, who got annihilated from all accounts, have a higher percentage of people with power back than us is mind-boggling. Doesn't seem like it's gonna be back anytime soon either. After 105 hours without (and counting), it's starting to get just a bit frustrating.

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http://shop.ergoclothing.com/. If you haven't liked the 'Restore the Shore' page on Facebook, I suggest checking it out. The work of a college kid down the shore who wanted to help out his community, and he's designed these shirts. 100% of the proceeds go to aid victims and their families in the relief efforts. When you have a couple of minutes, like the page and buy a shirt. Ordered mine a few minutes ago. Every little bit helps. Let's band together and help our neighbors out.